Teens as basically kids, or basically adults? (+poll)

In terms of how I see teenagers in real life as an adult - I perceive them as children.

However, when it comes to writing teenage characters, I think there may be some problems you run into if you go into it writing them as "children." When you get in the mindset of "is this person a child or an adult?" that brings along a lot of your own prejudices of how you see that person. You say "this person is a child" and you're tackling their issues and situations from the adult perspective - "You think all these things are important, but they're not. I, an adult, have years of experience and maturity and I can see this is all irrelevant in the long run." But that mindset would compromise your ability to portray the character's problems as real problems - you risk treating your character condescendingly, as an adult treats a child, and not respectfully, as an adult treats other adults.

In terms of how I would write teenage characters - it's similar to how I would write an "immature" adult. Like, you know how you might deal with some adults who you feel like are not as in control of themselves as they should be and you think (or might even say) "Why are you acting so immature?" For me, those situations are like "this is the sort of behavior I expect in high school or college, but you really should have grown out of this by now!" and yet, despite my expectations, these are in fact real adults who behave in this way. And so, if I were to write teenage characters in the same way, I would simultaneously be writing them as adults but also not-quite-adults. There's a lot more nuance to this "technique" than I might be letting on, but I haven't quite refined my description of it yet.

Another approach of mine would be writing teenagers the way adults are written in, say, a CW drama show. My major experience with those shows would be Arrow or The Flash - where I'm consistently frustrated with these characters for being overly emotional or dramatic about their personal lives when there are more important things at hand. I watch these and think "You guys are like, 30, stop being so petty and just communicate like adults!" Again, I think this because if these characters were 15 instead, I would find it a lot more understandable that they were so bad at handling their personal relationships. I would still find it frustrating, but I would understand.

Anyway, the past two paragraphs were kinda half-joke, half-serious - I would strive for a higher standard of writing than CW dramas, even when it comes to teenagers - but it's a somewhat close analogy to how I distinguish teen and adult characters.

Teenagers are certainly a different animal than either adults or kiddos. I think being a teen can be the most tumultuous time in a person's life. You have more responsibilities than you did as a kid, but you don't have the dully-developed brain to handle them like an adult does. Therefore, I do think it's important to try and write a teen like a teen--a person a bit beyond childhood and on the cusp of adulthood.

If the questions is about how to portray teens in your story or media, well, I guess it depends on your audience...
if you write for older people, then they’ll probably act like kids, stressing out emotional immaturity for example, if you write for younger people, they’ll probably act like adults, handling responsibilities for example, and if you write for teens, they’ll act like teens...
stories are often written for a target audience...

I'm not going to vote this time, but I do want to put my two cents forward because I work with teens. Previously in the classroom, now in smaller music-lesson groups.

They are neither children, nor adults. They're adolescents, which, as any parent will tell you, is definitely not either category. (If it were, they'd be easier to deal with!)

Also, the variation in maturity levels between the ages, as well as between individual teens of the same age, is absolutely wild. For simplicity's sake, I'll generalise the age brackets, but I've taught 13-year-olds who still acted 11, and 13-year-olds who acted 20, in the same classroom. (It makes managing behaviour a blast.)

Their life experience will make an enormous difference in how maturely they behave as well. A teen who's helped raise 4 younger siblings while their parents worked late will be far ahead in maturity when compared with a teen whose mum has helicoptered around helping them with everything their whole life.

Also important - girls mature faster than boys in terms of their emotional control and self-regulation. And a non-neurotypical teen (ADHD, mild autism) will be a year or two behind their peers in emotional maturity, even if they're quite smart. (I was this!)

A young teen (13 - 15) is, on average, going to demonstrate more childish behaviours - though they're still distinct, behaviourally and psychologically, from children. They will struggle more with impulse control, care enormously about identity and friendship groups, and find separating reason from emotion quite difficult. They tend to have very black/white views of the world. They also tend to base their identity around things they like, and get very enthusiastic - and defensive - about those things.

A mid teen (16 - 17) is, on average, growing out of their childish behaviour. They're still quite black and white in their thinking about most subjects, but they're better able to handle nuance. They're also getting better at tolerating personal difference. Their ability to regulate their behaviour and feelings is improving. Generally, talking to them feels like talking to a young adult, albeit a very naive one with zero real-world life experience.

A late teen (17 - 19) is a young adult, though a childish and often still self-centred adult. They are mostly able to manage adult tasks and responsibilities, they're able to think in more nuanced ways, and they behave like adults. That said, most still lack life experience, so while they walk and talk like adults, they're going to be one who still has a lot to learn about the world, and they will probably still stumble a lot.

As for how I write them... it depends on a few factors.

• Age
• Personality
• Environment/upbringing

If I were writing a story about a 14-year-old in Australia, they'd be written more like a child than an adult. However, were I writing a story about a 17-year-old in, let's say Germany, they'd be written more like an adult than a child. The culture you grow up in, and particularly how much independence and responsibility you have growing up, has a big impact on how quickly you mature.

Finally, a change in environment is a massive boost for growth. A human being faced with adversity which they have to overcome themselves will either sink or swim, regardless of age. (Unless they're a very little child.) A teenage character faced with a 'save the world' scenario, who has the capacity to rise and meet that challenge, will mature through that far more quickly than they would otherwise, and will come out the other side far more 'adult' than child or teen. This is a big part of why teen characters in fantasy stories don't strike me as enormously unrealistic, because they will rise to the occasion. (Though personally, I think ages 16 - 19 are much more realistic for such stories than ages 13 - 15.) It's also why, real-world, travelling alone during a gap year or going away to college rather than living with parents is so important for cultivating maturity.

Abstaining from the voting but I think (as already said) the teen years cover a wide range of development, so it's difficult to vote because of the great difference between 13 & 19.
Also, I think that maturity develops at different rates around different facets of personality. Also, development probably differs between today & societies long ago.

I don't know why puberty causes people to regress but teens have the mental capacity of a grapefruit. I've met more mature 10 year olds than teens.

I'm just sitting here watching older people define what's up with a demographic I was part of not so long ago, and it's kinda bizarre to be honest.

I agree with others that teens have enough unique general/typical characteristics to be their own category, BUT the question that's asked is which other category do they fall more towards? And in that respect I definitely feel (and voted) "children".

It's definitely not a one-size fits all thing, of course. But some reasons that influence my thoughts:

• the average teen (in my country at least) still has a primary focus on school rather than work or other independent goals
• still typically living with their family and often as dependents
• starting to explore themselves and develop more as a person, but still has a long ways to go
• still relatively immature and lacking in life experience to make sound decisions consistently

There are many exceptions to each of these rules, of course, but I see teens at least up to the age of 18 as still essentially being children, and looking back on my own experiences and many of the people close to me, I would argue that was still largely the case even into 18, 19, and maybe even up towards the early 20's as well. Speaking personally, I ended up attending university right out of highschool and didn't really feel "adult-y" until after graduation from there at age 22 lol Although folks who take on more responsibility and such earlier may reach that point faster, certainly.

It goes the other way too though. Similarly there are a number of grown-ass adults that I know that are way more childish than any child, unfortunately some people never mature... but they're similarly not representative of the whole group lol

I accidentally clicked adult. Don't count my vote. Trying to undo it. Not working.

Edit: Managed to undo it. Picked children. Even 18 years old seem kids to me, even though I'm 26.

Also, no matter how smart teens are, psychological structure remains fragile until they learn to be super strong, face their failures and rejections head on and deal with day to day lives of manipulating adults and predators etc.

If it's 16-19, then it's adults to me.

Teen rulers usually get a guardian untill they reach a certain age. They remain under guidance.

I prefer saying minors/adolescents versus kids/children, since adolescence is an in-between from childhood to adulthood. Being the parent of 1 teenager and 1 child, it's obvious the former is closer to adulthood than the latter. (Plus, when I was a teenager, I felt like I was being talked down to or infantilized if called a kid/child.)

Anywhoo, as someone closing in on 31, I don't really consider someone an adult until they're 25ish. There's still a ton of maturity to be developed from 18 to 25.

So, I do agree teenagers in media need to be portrayed by minors/adolescents. Having adolescents play teenagers gives more realistic representation. Too many teenagers think looking or acting like particular characters is the goal, when those actors and the people who write the stories are adults. So obviously they're flawed representations.

Further, I think it's kind of an insidious tactic that allows minor-aged characters to be put in adult situations, justified by the actors are adults. Like, they're sexualizing this underage character, but it's fine because the actor is actually an adult? But that doesn't translate well from that universe to ours, which leads to over-sexualization (especially by adults) of actual minors today. Not to mention the grooming aspect, which allows adolescents to accept sexualization aimed at them from adults.

As for narrative examples of teenagers, that's a bit more difficult. Adult writers probably forget how to think, act, or speak like a teen, to some extent. lol

Isn't the fact we have a separate name for that age group telling enough that they are neither an adult or a kid?

Is this a, "if you had to choose" scenario or..?

Huh, kids are related to videogames, toys, being supervised, being innocent, and in most cases being incapable to take care of themself.

Teens are crazier, more irresponsible, they are moody, they can drink alcohol and smoke if they want to, they can have sex and drug themself if they want to, they can go to parties, they can drive, they can do almost anything if their parents don't control them so, in my opinion, Teens are mostly closer to adults, especially if they are 15 and over, but 13 and under, they are still kids.

Being mature or immature doesn't have any meaning to me, even people that are beyond 30 can be mature or immature, so I'm thinking more about what a Teen can do and what a Kid can do.